Mage And Wolf
Chapter 289

Chapter 289: Chapter 289

Knowing Mila’s timeline gives me something to work with. If she’s selected, the Mayor will be invulnerable to almost all political attacks. If she’s not, they will still be targeted by his local opponents, but to a lesser extent.

Now that everyone is finally gone, and Johan has locked the door to the room to keep everyone out, I return to my cultivation. The pure Death Energy with no trace of other cultivation energy is a whole new experience for me. It’s working, merging my Domain and fortifying my cultivation simultaneously; it just feels very unusual. It’s a if the pure energy is directly shifting my body further away from mortality and towards the Demonic, the Dark half of divinity.

I focus on channeling it through the soul shrine, purifying it, and making it more compatible with my body as I sink into a meditative trance and try to find a way to deactivate the collar. Inside the cage, I think it might be possible. If I can coat it in Death Energy, it will fail to activate when I leave, thinking the Wearer is dead and become an inert metal piece.

But after a few attempts, I realized that I could do more than that. It’s intended to drain the life force of the enslaved person to feed itself. With a slight tweak, It will instead gather all surrounding energy, like a rechargeable battery. The trick is to block some of the Inscriptions circuits and force them to reroute when it activates.

I wish I had Elder Song here for this; he could show me how to do it in minutes. Instead, I work at it all night, and I’m only 70 percent sure it will work correctly. If it doesn’t, who knows what might happen.

Mayor Johan himself comes to get me just after dawn, and I stop my work, praying that I’m not about to blow my head off with a malfunctioning slave collar. I get dressed quickly, braiding my hair and lamenting that I can’t pull out a brush for fear of discovery.

"Good morning, puppy. You’re coming to work with me today; I’ve got a collection of meetings about the Councilors Proposed changes to slave treatment. You’ll get to visit with others like you, ones broken and trained to be pets, and the council will decide if the practice needs to end."

"It sounds like you’ve got a busy day."

"You have no idea. But for the most part, I’ve got the votes. It’s just the last few amendments that are causing trouble. But that’s for us to discuss. Are you ready, or do I need to carry you?"

"I’m ready. Lead the way, Mayor."

"Master. Pets are supposed to call their owners Master. I swear they torture them so much during training that their brains shut down and they don’t fear anything. That’s why most of the council wants the practice banned and the ones we’ve got put down or retrained."

Oh, so they’re not ending the practice because they’re concerned about morality, but because they’re worried about the outcomes.

When we reach the carriage, he physically throws me inside, climbing in behind me while I fight the urge to kick him back out the door. Patience is a virtue. We’re going to see the council, and that sounds like it could be all sorts of fun.

I have access to Death Energy now but still no regular cultivation energy, which limits my senses, so I’ve resorted to relying on my eyes to determine the power level of this world. Nobody is flying or moving at an excessively high speed through town, so I’m leaning towards Mortal Realm cultivation being the norm.

Most of the carriages are pulled by captured Beasts of the marginally intelligent sort, enough to navigate with minimal input. Ours turns towards a large building in an even more affluent area of town than the Mayor lives in, and I see a few commuters flying without wings, so they do have Immortal cultivators here. Just not everywhere.

The Mayor must be in charge of the Mortal Realm portion of the city. Or he lives there for ceremonial purposes, some ’one with the ordinary people’ nonsense.

Pleasant banter is exchanged between the Mayor and the few Titans we pass, and the streets start to get empty; only the fancy carriages travel here, no pedestrians. The feeling of Death Energy is increasing, not like there was a a recent death, but similar to a prison, there are murderers nearby.

"Mayor, you’re about to get ambushed." I point out since he doesn’t seem to have noticed yet.

"It’s Master. And nobody would dare go so far." He shakes his head, dismissing my concern.

Black Armored Titans block the road at the next corner, weapons drawn. "I can smell the Imperial Shampoo from here. Turn over the candidate, and we will let you live."

Mayor Johan pulls a chest full of weapons from under the carriage bench, taking one in each of his four hands, and I grab what he would consider a short sword slightly taller than I am with a smile. It’s high quality, light, and well-balanced.

"Feeling feisty puppy. Don’t let me stop you then." The Mayor laughs, kicking the carriage door open. The Nephilim carriage driver has a two-handed ax at the ready, while eight Armored opponents are slowly circling the carriage.

I use both feet to launch myself at the closest, blade forward. He’s so startled by the sudden attack that the blade pierces his forehead before he can react. The sword is beautifully sharp, sliding free easily and I hack down on his neighbor, removing the right two arms, then strike with an upward thrust leaving the blade buried through his heart.

He has a vicious-looking halberd, which I requisition to decapitate another of our black Armored Titan attackers. Energy surges through me; all three were Core Formation Cultivators for sure. I can feel another fall, then another as I hack the legs from an attacker with the giant polearm. The follow-up splits his sternum, and I find myself without an opponent.

Guards in fancy armor outnumber the remaining attackers, capturing them instead of killing them.

"Hey, what’s this crap? I wasn’t finished killing them yet." I demand, marching up to their leader, who laughs and pats my blood-covered head.

"I’m glad you enjoy your work, but the penalty for attempted kidnapping isn’t death."

It would have been if he didn’t stop me.

"Got any water? I’m all sticky." I ask instead of venting my frustration. I just need to keep it together until I get to council, there’s bound to be more people worth killing there.

"Is that a pet, Mayor? They’re not usually so bloodthirsty, are they?" The leader is the reinforcements asks, ignoring me.

"This one is a bit odd. They told me she’s a defect, unbroken after training, but she’s good with kids when she’s not looking to kill things. I suspect she was crazy to begin with."

"It’s hard to shatter a fractured mind," I add a bit of advice from the shrine relic about interrogation techniques helpfully.

"Really? Then what do you do with them?" Mayor Johan asks, humoring me.

"Bend them to your will, of course. Shape them into something useful." The Mayor nods, but the soldiers look uneasy.

"Who taught you that?" One of the attackers asks, with a smile that says he’s not mad about his dead allies.

"The Dark Goddess, of course. Who knows torture better than the one who rules death?"

"Enough. Talk of her is prohibited in the city. Keep Silent, or I’ll have to gag you, Puppy." The guard leader insists with heavy notes of authority in his voice.

The guards relax a little when the topic changes, but I can see the attacker thinking deeply before he gets an understanding look and activates a device hidden in his sleeve, vanishing from sight.